How common is the surname Cai?

8,457 people in the United States had the surname Cai in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 36,508 Americans. It ranked 4,191st of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Cai?

Cai Yan, 3rd century Chinese poet and musician, followed by Tsai Ing-wen.

Where is the surname Cai most common?

Wikidata records people named Cai in Eastern Han and Taiwan.

Is the surname Cai getting more or less common?

More common. 4,286 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,457 in 2010, up 97%.

The surname Cai

A Chinese surname, carried by 8,457 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex C000

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Cai is more common than 97.4% of them.

Origin

Chinese origin

Borrowed from Mandarin 蔡 (Cài).

One of 193 Chinese surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 8,457 people named Cai in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 36,508 Americans. That is up 97% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,286.

#4,191

rank among US surnames

8,457

people in 2010

2.9

per 100,000 Americans

+97.3%

change since 2000 (was #7,178)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#4,182	Wasson	8,471	36,447
#4,184	Cartagena	8,467	36,465
#4,185	Coons	8,466	36,469
#4,186	Pagano	8,465	36,473
#4,187	Riddick	8,464	36,477
#4,188	Gillen	8,462	36,486
#4,189	Kersey	8,459	36,499

Who is named Cai

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

96% of people named Cai identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, 1.5% as white (not Hispanic) and 1.1% as two or more races.

Asian and Pacific Islander 96%
White (not Hispanic) 1.5%
Two or more races 1.1%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 0.9%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Black, Native American are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

Famous Cais

2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Cai Yan
3rd century Chinese poet and musician, 177–249
Tsai Ing-wen
14th and 15th President of Republic of China (Taiwan), born 1956

Notable Cais come mostly from Eastern Han (1) and Taiwan (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Cai

Cai has the Soundex code C000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C000.

Other Chinese surnames

All 193 Chinese surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Cai come from?: Borrowed from Mandarin 蔡 (Cài).
How common is the surname Cai?: 8,457 people in the United States had the surname Cai in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 36,508 Americans. It ranked 4,191st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Cai?: In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Cai identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, and 1.5% as white (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Cai?: Cai Yan, 3rd century Chinese poet and musician, followed by Tsai Ing-wen.
Where is the surname Cai most common?: Wikidata records people named Cai in Eastern Han and Taiwan.
Is the surname Cai getting more or less common?: More common. 4,286 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,457 in 2010, up 97%.
What are other spellings of Cai?: Tsai and Ts'ai.